113992242-Dravidian-Settlements-in-Ceylon-and-the-Beginnings-of-the-Kingdom-of-Jaffna-By-Karthigesu-Indrapala-Complete-Phd-Thesis-University-of-London-1965

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The most important feature of tbi8 period, in
regard to Dravidian settlements in the island, is the presence
of a number of mercenaries, traders, artisans and Brhmas from
a].]. parts of South India. The most important among these
Dravidian communities were the mercantile bodies known as the
Aififi1!ruvar, Valafljiyar and the Nnidis as well as the mercenary
forces called the V aikk!ras. An analysis of the activities of
the mercantile communities reveals that they may have been
responsible for the migration of several traders, artisans and
mercenaries into the island in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
More than seventy inscriptions, in Tamil, Telugu,
Knnada and Malayalam, which refer to the activities of the
mercantile communities mentioned above, have been discovered in
South India. These range between the eighth and the seventeenth
century. Outside the South Indian peninsula, there are seven
in Ceylon one in Sumatra2and another in Burma which refer
1. i) S.I.i., IV, No. 11+05, from Anuridhapura; ii) E.Z., I,
p. 181, from P4iyafiku!ama ('I) ; iii) E.Z., II, p. 236 , from
naulundiva; iv) El., XVIII, pp. 330-338, from Polonnaruva;
v) Unpublished - from Vhlkaa; vi) Unpublished - from
Padaviya; vii) Unpublished - from VihrThTnna.
2. M.E.R. for 1891-1892, p. 11.
3. E.I., VII, p. 197.